5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

The earth has been nothing but kind to us; it's time to return the favor.

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Climate change is an overwhelming problem on Earth. The greenhouse gases, produced by new man-made machinery, factory farming and deforestation, are building up are eating away at the ozone layer. The destruction of the ozone causes changes in the climate like that the average temperature of the earth is rising causing the polar ice caps to melt.

Photo courtesy of climate.nasa.gov

Climate change has created many threats for example, the submerging of New York City, the extinction of many species and eventually the ultimate destruction of the planet. With all of this negative climate change, try to do your part and reduce your carbon footprint by making little changes in the way you eat.

Avoid mass-produced animal products

Photo courtesy of planetmattersandmore.com

We all love to have a good burger out or get our milk from the grocery store. But have you thought about where those products originated? Most of the meat, dairy and eggs come from the overwhelming and harsh agriculture industry. Raising animals to produce these products requires immense amounts of resources without a large net gain, plus all the waste that is created during the process.

For example, to create one gallon of milk, a cow needs 683 gallons of water. This way of farming takes a toll on the land as well; the land in the Amazon has been cut down by a staggering 90% solely for livestock to graze on. In the end, factory farming contributes to 51% of the global greenhouse-gases, which takes a huge toll on the environment. So how can you avoid this?

(Want to know more about the effect of meat on the environment? Click here.)

Eat local

Photo courtesy of gaiahealthblog.com

You don’t have to abandon that meat that you love, just get it from a local source. There are plenty of small local farms all over America, you’d not only be helping the environment, you’d be rewarding a small business for farming in a sustainable and humane way.

Another reason to eat local is that the emissions that come from the transportation of food, from a factory farm to your grocery store, contribute to the gasses that harm the environment. Reduce your footprint by finding a local farm or community supported agriculture near you and trust me, the food tastes way better too.

Grow your own food

Photo by Kendall Blizzard

This is a way to completely take the transportation emissions out of the equation. Obviously, you can’t have cows and a full garden in your backyard but there is an easy way to grow a significant portion of your food in your backyard.

Use pot planting or a small section of your garden to grow things like lettuce, tomatoes, squash, herbs, the list can go on and on. You can start these plants from seeds or buy the started plants from places like Home Depot or a farm close to you. This saves you money, reduces the amount of chemicals you eat from factory farming, and will improve your overall health. Plus it will be very rewarding to eat the food you’ve grown yourself.

Cool it with the water

Photo courtesy of epa.gov

Water consumption is often very over used in America. No one needs a picture-perfect, green, constantly-watered lawn; this is just wasting water and energy that does more harm than good. A good way to use the natural resources given to you is a rain barrel. This will naturally fill itself up whenever it rains and it will lower the amount of times you need to turn on that hose.

Compost

Photo courtesy of cedar-grove.com

Lastly, having a compost may be intimidating but it really isn’t. Have a little pail (with a lid) on your kitchen counter and throw the extra produce scrapes into the pail. This will cut down on your amount of trash and save energy. The more you compost and return that produce to the earth, the less emissions you’ve created having to truck that trash to a dump.